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Good morning! Moms, here’s hoping your Mother’s Day was a great one. Mine began with crayon hearts, moved on to the Tulip Fest and ended with pepperoni pizza in the back yard. I don’t know what else a mother could hope for.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City today. Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy will be in Amsterdam today at 2 p.m. to announce construction to strengthen Lock E-11 on the Erie Canal.

On to the headlines:

Documents obtained by City & State show that the Moreland Commission was investigating state lawmakers’ use of campaign funds, flagging purchases made at retail stores, car repairs, casinos and a payment to Do-do, the “Clown of Clowns.” The panel tracked campaign dollars spent by the current members of the state Legislature from July 2007 through June 2013. It did not examine the filings of the governor, the attorney general or the state comptroller. (C&S)

In advance of Cahill’s announcement, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and former NYC council Speaker Christine Quinn voiced their support of the current AG, Democrat Eric Schneiderman. (CapCon)

A close lieutenant of NXIVM founder Keith Raniere has broken with his Colonie-based life-coaching enterprise and fled with her young son from his inner circle, according to court papers filed as part of a federal lawsuit. That email and others alleged to have been sent by Keeffe allude to “evidence of massive criminal conduct” by Raniere and others. (TU)

A bill introduced Friday in the state Senate and Assembly would clear the way for Albany to become first Capital Region community to install red-light cameras. Mayor Kathy Sheehan said Saturday that the bill has her support: “For me, it’s a public safety issue,” she said. “This is not a revenue-driven decision at all.” (TU, CapCon)

If the New York Racing Association should decide to part ways with CEO Christopher Kay, he could see up to $550,000 in severance pay, Jim Odato reports. (TU)

Unidentified remains from victims of the Sept. 11. 2001, World Trade Center attacks were returned to Ground Zero on Saturday, a move that drew protests from some victims’ family members. (DN)

Battles over space and money have inhibited collaboration between charters and traditional public schools, even though a key rationale for charter schools was that they would be testing grounds for practices that could be put to wider use. (NYT)

The Buffalo News has launched a three-part series on fracking, contrasting New York’s Southern Tier with counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and suggesting that even if fracking comes to New York, its effects and development are likely to be different than they were across the border.

President Obama is scheduled to speak at the Tappan Zee Bridge on Wednesday and call for increased federal spending for infrastructure projects. (GNS)

While the president’s in the neighborhood, Rob Astorino says that he’ll invite him to Westchester “in search of any evidence of racial discrimination” in towns’ zoning laws. An Astorino spokesman said the Westchester County executive likely would veto efforts to bring the county into compliance with a 2009 fair housing settlement, calling the proposal a sellout and insisting Westchester is already complying. (NYP, GNS)

A State Supreme Court judge has issued a restraining order allowing Troy’s Ark Community Charter School to stay open and preventing closure letters from being sent to parents. (CapCon)

Fred LeBrun: Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and sitting Gov. Andrew Cuomo share a rare distinction among top New York politicians. Each is in the cross hairs of a federal prosecutor over public corruption. Something else Cuomo and Bruno have in common is their reaction to federal scrutiny: Defiance.

Times Union: Thank goodness Mr. Bharara is picking up where the commission left off. Maybe we will learn why the governor and the legislative leaders seemed so eager to shut down the Moreland probe. It doesn’t look good.

Ryan Karben: With $30 million in campaign funding, Cuomo can blunt an attack from his left and still win. But Schneiderman and Cahill will probably have about equal war-chests, leaving the incumbent needing to appeal to divided Democrats sapped by Obama fatigue without alienating Republicans and independents. … Everyone gets messy when there is chaos in the cafeteria. The liberals’ pie aimed at Cuomo may hit Schneiderman instead.

In national news:

“Am I entitled to one mistake?” asked Donald Sterling, apologizing for racial comments that prompted the National Basketball Association to ban him for life. (LAT)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday that the military should “continually” review its prohibition on transgender people in the armed forces. (NYT)

Etc. The Yankees and Mets start a four-game series tonight, meaning there will be at least some joy in Mudville this week, one way or another. And last night, the New York Rangers evened their series with Pittsburgh to force a Game Seven.

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“Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s girlfriend, Sandra Lee, failed to obtain building permits for renovations at their six-bedroom home in New Castle. (GNS)”
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While this story is a bit on the “gossipy” side of “news,” it’s certainly true that ensuring that the necessary building permits are obtained for home improvements is ultimately the homeowner’s responsibility. But readers should note that this article did not mention that most homeowners, when contracting for home improvements, reply on their contractor to obtain any necessary building permits. Maybe such background information makes this story a bit less sensational.
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Still, I commend the news media for supplying readers with their daily dose of gossip. What would ours news be without it?

“Ryan Karben: With $30 million in campaign funding, Cuomo can blunt an attack from his left and still win. But Schneiderman and Cahill will probably have about equal war-chests, leaving the incumbent needing to appeal to divided Democrats sapped by Obama fatigue without alienating Republicans and independents. … Everyone gets messy when there is chaos in the cafeteria. The liberals’ pie aimed at Cuomo may hit Schneiderman instead.”
_Unleash the Third Way patricians to tell us about all the “bad things” that will happen if we don’t be good little Democrats and get in line behind Cuomo!
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Sorry Third-Way-former-nobody-assemblyman-now-cashing-in, but your stories of Republican boogiemen snatching away the AGs post don’t scare us. Call your Wall Street buddies and ask for another spooky fairy tale.

Gov. Cuomo’s campaign strategy: never mentioning Rob Astorino in public while letting others do the attacking for him. (WSJ)
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The strategy is as old as politics. It is called utilizing the advantage of incumbency. Act gubernatorial and sic your underling attack dogs on your opponent(s). Cuomo doesn’t know about a lot about many things but he does know how to operate a campaign. Astorino will learn that if nothing else from his efforts to replace the governor this fall.

“Meanwhile, Cuomo is working to patch things up with liberals in his own party, worried that a challenger could siphon votes in November. (NYT)”
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By “patching up”, NYT really means to say “trying desperately to get 1199 to sway everyone elses opinion in the WFP.”
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1199 can go scratch. They can either stand with the rest of labor – whom Cuomo has repeatedly screwed over – or they can act like a bunch of turncoats and scabs.

The Moreland Commission:
“It did not examine the filings of the governor, the attorney general or the state comptroller.”
Just another KGB used by the clown prince for intimidation purposes. If he loses reelection has can always go work for Putin.

If the New York Racing Association should decide to part ways with CEO Christopher Kay, he could see up to $550,000 in severance pay, Jim Odato reports. (TU)
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So long NYRA! Kay has bled every company that he has worked at dry. Just ask the people at Toys ‘r Us. Glad I neither own a nag nor bet on the ponies…Kay should never have been hired in the first place. He knows zilch about the horse racing industry. Once hired, NYRA had to go out and hire a consultant to tutor this guy, Kay, about his job.

Gary Stern of The Journal News looks at a two-year project to rewrite New York’s educational standards, a project that was booted in favor of the Common Core. (GNS)
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Home grown educational reform by people who know, involving teachers before the fact, what more could have been asked for but, of course, it didn’t include $700,000,000 of Washington’s dollars that came with the Common Corpse. Tisch and King sold their collective souls to the pols in DC for no good educational reason. Grounds, IMHO, to terminate both, and dump the racist charter school movement. Start over.

Battles over space and money have inhibited collaboration between charters and traditional public schools, even though a key rationale for charter schools was that they would be testing grounds for practices that could be put to wider use. (NYT)
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ROFLMBO…..testing grounds for best practices adaptation? Nice idea. It simply hasn’t happened! Ditch the charter schools, post haste…

Times Union: Thank goodness Mr. Bharara is picking up where the commission left off. Maybe we will learn why the governor and the legislative leaders seemed so eager to shut down the Moreland probe. It doesn’t look good.
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There apparently has at least been wide spread abuse of campaign dollars. Mostly for personal expenditures, and the like….. If nothing else a few marriages may be tested if (once) information about specific legislators begin to see the light of day. Of course, hanky panky has been part of the legislative scene here in Albany since the days the town was called Fort Orange. If there is anything of substance for Mr. Bharara to grab onto lets hope he wastes no time in doing so, especially if it involves members of the NYS Senate where one seat, if changed, can shift the leadership from one party to the other.

I understand that the strategy is to not engage Astorino, but the way I see it, If the Governor was sou proud of all of his “historic”, “Unprecedented”, “innovative” accomplishments he would welcome discussing all of his successes. I mean how could you defeat such a stellar record of accomplishments by this wunderkind Governor. The fact is that he knows that he will be exposed for the fraud that he is and the lack of any depth of accomplishment. I think that while it may be good strategy, for those on the fence or needing to be won over by this governor to get a seco nd vote for him, this tactic appears cowardly, and reflects poorly on his record in his first year in office. Then again, he will not get my vote or the vote from anyone in my family, so there is no swaying me.

President Obama is scheduled to speak at the Tappan Zee Bridge on Wednesday and call for increased federal spending for infrastructure projects. (GNS)

How about some Federal spending to build bridges in upstate New York, say, across Lake Champlain and Lake George, up around Bolton Landing? Three additional bridges at Ticonderoga, Keeseville and Cumberland Head (Plattsburgh) would open up the Adirondack Park to economic development and enhance national security as it relates to having the ability to move men and hardware from west to east, into New England, and back, say, from Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division. To cross Lake Champlain, people spend as much as $25 for a ticket to utilize a ferry. Imagine! A ferry, to cross a lake, in the 21st century!

The Moreland Commission:
“It did not examine the filings of the governor, the attorney general or the state comptroller.”

Well of course not.. He’s paying there salaries and appointed them all, you don’t cross the boss no matter how corrupt he is. Why do you think they disbanded? They got to close to seeing the true.. I hope Breet sees the true and starts handing out some much needed justice

Hawk:
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Cuomos war chest is irrelevant. The former assemblymans op/ed was in relation to the Attorney General – where he asserts a big scary Republican no one has ever heard of might beat the AG if liberals don’t line up behind Cuomo – which is what I was responding to.
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I have little patience for Third Way patricians telling everyone to blindly pull the lever for anyone with a (D) next to their name or else catastrophe! The only catastrophe was that we let the Third Wayers take over the party in the first place in response to the Great Right Shift of the 80s.

Has anyone looked into Cuomo’s compliance director on his campaign. What a joke…it’s Will Younger who’s Daddy got him a job at Empire State Development and so that didn’t work out so it seems Daddy got him working on the campaign.

Everyone of these thieves are taking money from taxpayers in salary and still ringing up all these extra bills. Its all crap. They are paid, per diemed and still all of this. Vote them all out. Disgusting.

Re: hawkny “To cross Lake Champlain, people spend as much as $25 for a ticket to utilize a ferry. Imagine! A ferry, to cross a lake, in the 21st century!”

Do you know how wide that bridge would have to be??? Have you ever taken that ferry? I have numerous times and it’s great. Locals like it too. And there already is a bridge across Lake Champlain, further up north. The ferry is much quicker. Seems a better solution than building a second bridge at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars (at least).

(Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s girlfriend, Sandra Lee, failed to obtain building permits for renovations at their six-bedroom home in New Castle. (GNS))

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Have we lost all sense of decency in our alleged political dialogue?

The hidden-hand rationale for bringing in Ms. Lee into the campaign, the unheard dog-whistle involved here is to attack the Gov. from a cultural issue perspective.

The dog-whistle became loud on this morning’s Fred Dicker show with Astorino.

Dicker wanted to bait Astorino into attacking Cuomo for living with Ms. Lee without being married.
Astorino refused to bite, to his credit.

Dicker will remain in his current position(s) through the Nov. election; and then he will pronounced his retirement and ride his ‘cycle down to his Florida new condo (house).

And this attack on Cuomo and Ms. Lee’s living arrangement is a toxic harbinger to come as the campaign heats up.

If Dicker’s mantra this morning continues, the political manure can be thrown back to Mr. Fred.

Does he ware a helmet while riding his ‘cycle?
Did he at any time fall off the ‘cycle, and slammed his head without a helmet protection?
Did this result in a required brain operation that went terribly wrong; that had his neurotransmitters constantly misfiring?

Interesting that Maziarz has the highest total expense that look like dodges of reporting requirement. Maziarz gets an awful lot of money from out of state–and an awful lot of money from downstate–and has run virtually unopposed for three election cycles. He spends a lot of money trying to influence elections right down to school boards in Niagara County. While NY has virtually no prohibitions concerning how our corrupt politicians spend the money they receive from their corrupt donors–the pattern with Maziarz and others stinks. Go get them Preet!

Mayor Kathy Sheehan, an Irish Catholic steps out to condemn John Cahill’s pro life platform for AG. And you wonder why Democrats keep losing elections in Democratic territories?
Maybe Mayor Sheehan should concentrate on the cleaning Albany streets (they are filthy), cleaning the parks, policing the streets, and maintaining fire and EMS protection. She certainly needs to vastly improve snow plowing and sanding operations…..but she apparently has plenty of time to endorse AG Schiederman and his ultra liberal platform………kill the babies even one minute prior to live birth. She is in full endorsment of the anti Catholic, anti Christian, anti Judeo Christian bent of the destroy lifers.
Instead she now wants to rip off citizens with her red light camera scam…some administrator.

Documents obtained by City & State show that the Moreland Commission was investigating state lawmakers’ use of campaign funds, flagging purchases made at retail stores, car repairs, casinos and a payment to Do-do, the “Clown of Clowns.”
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This cannot be correct – how is it possible that there is a clown out there without his/her own campaign account?

Re: hawkny “To cross Lake Champlain, people spend as much as $25 for a ticket to utilize a ferry. Imagine! A ferry, to cross a lake, in the 21st century!”
Do you know how wide that bridge would have to be??? Have you ever taken that ferry? I have numerous times and it’s great. Locals like it too. And there already is a bridge across Lake Champlain, further up north. The ferry is much quicker. Seems a better solution than building a second bridge at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars (at least).

Jason, Yes I have taken each one of the ferries that cross Lake Champlain. I have also taken bridges across bodies of water, including the Hudson River, in Albany and down River. If people had to pay to cross over into Rensselaer County via I-90 you would hear some screaming! Now, at the Tapanzee they may have to pay $25 each way to finance that bridge, but everyone who does pay has a job that supports that kind of overhead. Not so up in the North Country. Besides, I see it as a matter of national security which could makes all of the bridges chargeable to the $610,000,000,000 DOD budget that just got approved in Washington. If the Feds picked up 90% of the cost what the big deal? Think of the jobs that would be created, for starters.

@ Elmer
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If one wanted to connect the Adirondack Park with Route 4 to Rutland and beyond into New England, it wouldn’t be nearly as dumb as you suggest, Elmer. Look at a map. think outside the box, for once in your life. And tell me, how else are you going to open up New York’s second most destitute region to economic and commercial progress?

I have noticed nary a drop of oil spilled on the only bridge that crosses Lake Champlain at Crown Point. No trash either….. but I have seen both on the ferries including the one in use while the aforementioned bridge was being rebuilt for two years. Funny, just the opposite of what you say….imagine that.

Sorry hawk, but your proposal kills the reason people come to Lake George in the first place. Cut one the nation’s most beautiful lakes in two with a bridge, then carve a four lane road over Sleeping Beauty? How about a Hooter’s with docks on Shelving Rock?

It is a necessity that we build bridges over Lake George so that our troops at Fort Drum can get to New England and defend our coastline? Whoa–somebody needs to either get back in touch with reality–or we need to call the men with white coats!

I hope that the Buffalo article spends the time to report on the plans that are being devised, in the shale areas of PA., to have a sustained economic benefit from hydrofracking. As far as statements that New York will benefit less, I suggest that they look at the market for LNG, in Asia and Europe, as soon as the Federal government issues the permits for exporting LNG. The facilities are already under construction, in several places around the coastal U.S. And with the current situation in Ukraine, and the potential of it spreading to other Eastern European nations, depending on Putin’s appetite, LNG export may very well prevent a war that nobody ever wants to see. If we cut into Russia’s natural gas market, and undermine their pricing, in their exclusive market areas, it would amount to a huge lever that would work far better than sanctions. We all know how well sanctions have worked for us over the past decade.

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.